


Empties

by anonymous_sibyl



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Female Protagonist, Gen, Sorkinverse, episode coda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-05-09
Updated: 2005-05-09
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:06:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymous_sibyl/pseuds/anonymous_sibyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, Donna, are you going to answer the question or not?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Empties

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after "Commencement."
> 
> This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/). None of the media or characters written about in my fanfiction belong to me and I make no profit from these works. 

She lines the empties up, turns them so the labels are facing away from her, then sticks out her tongue at her reflection in the amber glass.

"So," she says again, her voice lower or higher or somehow different than before. "You in love with Josh?"

She can't see Donna in the bottles, and she's glad, because she's pretty sure the look on Donna's face would kill her and Amy Gardner does not die over a man, and most especially not over Josh Lyman.

"There's four on the table," Donna says, walking up behind her. "So that means there's two more around here somewhere."

"Whatever." She does not care that there are two more bottles of beer somewhere in this room but she doesn't turn one away when Donna passes the open bottle to her. It's cold and it goes down easy and right now she almost wishes she had something that goes down hard. "Are you?"

Across the desk Donna blinks and gulps her beer, clinks her nails on the bottle, and does everything except stand up and break into song to avoid answering. Not that she couldn't, because Amy is damn sure that if Donna Moss so wanted she could spin around three times, click her heels, and be suddenly spotlighted wearing a gold-sequined leotard and top hat, tap-dancing, and singing a medley of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. She shakes the daydream off when she realizes she's picturing Toby, Sam, and Josh, all in white tie, dancing in behind young Miss Moss.

"Wow," she slurs, and it occurs to her that she might be getting buzzed. "Are you? Are you, Donna Moss, in love with Deputy Chief of Staff Joshua Lyman?"

"I..."

"A ha!" Yeah, it would have gone so much better if she hadn't spilled beer all down the front of her shirt when she half-stood and pointed at Donna, but, still, the sentiment remains. "Elementary, my dear Watson. You," and she points at Donna again, carefully watching the bottle and smiling when it holds steady, "are in love with him."

"Oh! I am not!"

It's funny that Josh's assistant is feisty and it's funny that the two of them are standing on either side of this desk yelling at each other. It's not so funny that Donna isn't the only person in the room in love with Josh.

"Salud," she says, clinking her bottle against Donna's, before sitting back down.

"Cheers."

"To Josh or something."

"You have to get him," Donna says, as if that's the key to the great, magnificient Josh Lyman.

"I get him. I've gotten him." That sounds defensive even to her, and maybe that's a chink in her armor she's going to regret letting Donna see.

"No. He got you."

"And you get him? And he gets you?"

Donna looks away, then down, before staring straight across the desk. "I get him, Amy. I get him."

"A ha," Amy says, but it's quiet and small.

"A ha," Donna says and it's smaller.

Wow. None of this is funny anymore.


End file.
